Best hay replacer/short chop haylage for a hay quidder

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Irishbabygirl

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And he's a big boy so needs a lot!

Sadly, my 26yr old 17hh Dutch WB has got old man teeth now. The dentist can do no more for him.

He therefore now requires a hay replacer or a short chop haylage, so I would love to hear your experiences and recommendations for this.

I played around with a few ideas last winter, which was mostly feeding huge trug tubs of Fast Fibre and Hi-Fi. He's a bit of a piggy though and was treating it more like a huge bucket feed, which is fine when he's out but not when it's meant to last him overnight in a stable, and no matter how many huge buckets of the stuff I left him, it's not the same as leaving them with a lovely stuffed net of haylage!

I've been googling short chop haylage, and think this might be a better option for us both. I'm in the Newbury area of West Berkshire so not sure if anyone knows of a supplier who stocks this? The closest one appears to be 20 miles away in Stockbridge!

I've also had a go at putting regular hay through a garden shredder, but that took me ages!

I have heard of these hay brick things, but haven't tried before - how do they work?

He can eat a normal bucket feed and is on amazing grass, so he's getting lots of calories that way, and I'll aim to leave him out as much as possible for this reason, but there will be times he'll need to come in and need a replacer.

Anyway, I'll stop waffling on now and look forward to hopefully reading some replies!

Many thanks.
 
Hello Irish :) I just saw you thread looking for another an thought maybe I can help, last year I changed my horse and pony's feed to Simple System, as my Shetland has hardly any teeth left from needing them rasped so much, he could barely eat grass let alone hay and the vets weren't much help, I discovered SS feeds through a friend of a friend, and I couldn't thank them enough. Both looked better on this food than any other and my poor Shetland got a nice tummy back again ;) You'll want to take a look at their site, just Google Simple System Ltd. They have so many feeds that can be turned into a mash which is great for the dentally challenged. They have also just created a new feed called Hay Care which might interest you greatly, prices are very good and if you are within delivery range and spend over £80 they deliver for free. Hope this my help :)
 
Hi,
i have an old welshie who has the same problems :(
The forage bricks (various companies make them) were a total nightmare for her, even if wet etc :( Silvermoor haylage do a veteran haylage which is now a shorter cut. They are really helpful if you email them and should be able to send you a sample to try.
We've been trying to find a small straw chopper so we can cut our own for her but so far, we've had no luck in getting one that doesnt need to attach to a tractor (we got one which was meant to be working but had been stood, but we sent it to a repair place to be looked at and they couldnt fix it) sadly the only other thing thats working for my girl is grass, then readi-grass, fast fibre etc
 
Irishbabygirl said:
And he's a big boy so needs a lot!

Sadly, my 26yr old 17hh Dutch WB has got old man teeth now. The dentist can do no more for him.

He therefore now requires a hay replacer or a short chop haylage, so I would love to hear your experiences and recommendations for this.

I played around with a few ideas last winter, which was mostly feeding huge trug tubs of Fast Fibre and Hi-Fi. He's a bit of a piggy though and was treating it more like a huge bucket feed, which is fine when he's out but not when it's meant to last him overnight in a stable, and no matter how many huge buckets of the stuff I left him, it's not the same as leaving them with a lovely stuffed net of haylage!

I've been googling short chop haylage, and think this might be a better option for us both. I'm in the Newbury area of West Berkshire so not sure if anyone knows of a supplier who stocks this? The closest one appears to be 20 miles away in Stockbridge!

I've also had a go at putting regular hay through a garden shredder, but that took me ages!

I have heard of these hay brick things, but haven't tried before - how do they work?

He can eat a normal bucket feed and is on amazing grass, so he's getting lots of calories that way, and I'll aim to leave him out as much as possible for this reason, but there will be times he'll need to come in and need a replacer.

Anyway, I'll stop waffling on now and look forward to hopefully reading some replies!

Many thanks.
Click to expand...

D&H told me about Fibergy - it smells yummy and is a hay replacer http://www.dodsonandhorrellpetfood.co.uk/fibergy
Product Overview
Fibergy is a versatile chaff that can be fed to leisure, competition and racehorses, horses on box rest or convalescing, veterans that are maintaining condition, and laminitics. It can also be fed as a partial or total forage replacer.
Click to expand...
 
Speak with your local independent feed supplier

The company I work for sells feeds and we carry the things we know sell well however I have a thirty page price list with everything from unbranded feed to posh imported stuff so they may have something suitable to suggest and could probably add these to their next order, we get requests for single bags of random stuff all the time

Have you considered oat straw chaff? It's not hugely expensive and you get a lot of volume for your money

I like the hay blocks and soak these sometimes and they always go down well

When I am short on space I buy compressed bales of hay, these are basically a bale of soft hay compressed down to a similar size to horsehage bales so you peel off compressed slices, the stuff I get is much shorter cut than normal hay but not as short as chaff and the slices do break up easily
 
*Sahara said:
Hello Irish :) I just saw you thread looking for another an thought maybe I can help, last year I changed my horse and pony's feed to Simple System, as my Shetland has hardly any teeth left from needing them rasped so much, he could barely eat grass let alone hay and the vets weren't much help, I discovered SS feeds through a friend of a friend, and I couldn't thank them enough. Both looked better on this food than any other and my poor Shetland got a nice tummy back again ;) You'll want to take a look at their site, just Google Simple System Ltd. They have so many feeds that can be turned into a mash which is great for the dentally challenged. They have also just created a new feed called Hay Care which might interest you greatly, prices are very good and if you are within delivery range and spend over £80 they deliver for free. Hope this my help :)
Click to expand...

Thanks! I'll take another look at this - I think from memory it was the delivery charge that was putting me off, but like you said - ordering enough for free delivery is a good idea!
He can manage the grass, a feed and some hay, so maybe this is better saved for a few winters when he can't manage the hay and I'll look into short chop haylage for now 🙂
 
luckilotti said:
Hi,
i have an old welshie who has the same problems :(
The forage bricks (various companies make them) were a total nightmare for her, even if wet etc :( Silvermoor haylage do a veteran haylage which is now a shorter cut. They are really helpful if you email them and should be able to send you a sample to try.
We've been trying to find a small straw chopper so we can cut our own for her but so far, we've had no luck in getting one that doesnt need to attach to a tractor (we got one which was meant to be working but had been stood, but we sent it to a repair place to be looked at and they couldnt fix it) sadly the only other thing thats working for my girl is grass, then readi-grass, fast fibre etc
Click to expand...

Thank you. Yes, it was Silvermoor Veteran I was looking at but the nearest supplier was over twenty miles away. I wonder if they'll deliver.......
 
WelshD said:
Speak with your local independent feed supplier

The company I work for sells feeds and we carry the things we know sell well however I have a thirty page price list with everything from unbranded feed to posh imported stuff so they may have something suitable to suggest and could probably add these to their next order, we get requests for single bags of random stuff all the time

Have you considered oat straw chaff? It's not hugely expensive and you get a lot of volume for your money

I like the hay blocks and soak these sometimes and they always go down well

When I am short on space I buy compressed bales of hay, these are basically a bale of soft hay compressed down to a similar size to horsehage bales so you peel off compressed slices, the stuff I get is much shorter cut than normal hay but not as short as chaff and the slices do break up easily
Click to expand...

Thanks! Yes this is a really good idea and we do have quite a good one who delivers my way.
The compressed bales sound good if, like you say, they are a shorter cut. Are they just an own brand?
 
Irishbabygirl said:
Thanks! I'll take another look at this - I think from memory it was the delivery charge that was putting me off, but like you said - ordering enough for free delivery is a good idea!
He can manage the grass, a feed and some hay, so maybe this is better saved for a few winters when he can't manage the hay and I'll look into short chop haylage for now ��
Click to expand...

Welcome :) if you give the SS feed line a call they are more than happy to give advice, very nice people, good luck.
 
I use a mix of soaked grass nuts, high fibre cubes and mollichaff calmer (its the least molassy one of the mollichaff). Mollichaff is the only chaff he'll eat (that I can get hold of) as its really soft and short?
To make it last longer, I miss it earlier in the day so that it swells and dries a bit....
The grass nuts can be soaked to the consistency your horse prefers. My ponylike a bit of texture rather than completely sloppy.
 
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